


Right Then, Right Now

by samalexander



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Ms. Marvel (Comics), Nova (Comics), Spider-Man (Comicverse), Spider-Man (Ultimateverse)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 12:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8162329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samalexander/pseuds/samalexander
Summary: “If there’s anything you want to tell us,” added Miles. “you can tell us. We’re your friends dude.”Miles said this in hopes of reassuring Sam. He didn’t expect to receive the cold scowl Sam's expression suddenly changed into. “If you really were my friends then maybe you should start acting like it.” He jerked his arm away from Kamala’s grasp, causing her to step back in surprise. “Go home guys.”





	

            To say Sam Alexander was tired would be the understatement of the century. Not only was he mentally tired, but also physically and emotionally tired. Unable to find his father after searching for almost three months took a serious toll on him. He would spend hours laying in bed wondering if it was right to give up or if he should continue searching. It didn’t help that every time he needed to get his mind off the topic his hometown friends wouldn’t be there to hang with him. They still seemed pretty pissed, but Sam spent days trying to think of the perfect explanation of his constant absences. In the end he gave up on that too.

            Although after all the work he’s done to become the Nova he is now, Sam didn’t want to waste being an avenger. He had argued with his mother about being a member countless times which would only seem pointless if he had given up now. If he couldn’t have an amazing time in Arizona at least he could have an amazing time as an avenger. He decided to put on his Nova helmet and fly off back to Avengers headquarters.

            Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man had already arrived in the airfield base and were noisily working away on the left wing. Sam doesn’t think he’s ever seen his teammates so wild. Putting on his usual confident demeanour, he decided to approach them and see where all the fun was at.

            “And when your grandma told you to stay off drugs? Classic.” Kamala chuckled. Miles wasn’t as amused judging by his expression.

            He narrowed his eyes at her. “Yeah, yeah, being grounded by my grandma was so embarrassing.”

            Kamala lightly punched him on the shoulder. “Stop, I told you. Being grounded isn’t that embarrassing. You have no idea how bad it gets when my dad does it.”

            Not having a clue on what they were talking about, Sam stood awkwardly beside them. He scratched his head. “Um, what’s so funny?”

            The other two whipped their heads towards him. “Oh, hey Sam!” greeted Kamala. “We were just talking about that time Miles was totally getting owned by his grandmother. Can you believe he’s such a grandmama’s boy?” she said, teasing Miles.

            “I am not!” Miles replied frustratingly. “Have you even tried talking to her? When she wants her way, she gets her way. I can’t believe you were there to witness the whole thing.”

            “Lucky for me! And when she pulled you into that embrace? Cutest moment I have ever witnessed.” teased Kamala. She made the same kissy face to Miles that she made during the actual time of event. Miles retaliated by expressing a face of disgust to her.

            Sam didn’t want to admit it but he was even more confused. And more left out. He cleared his throat out of habit. “Wait, wait, wait. When was this?”

            Kamala stopped laughing for a while before answering him. “Oh, I visited Miles in his house one day. I had nothing to do so I decided to drop by. His grandmother stopped by his room to hug him and tell him how much she oh so loved him and-“

            “Stooooop.” Miles groaned. He placed his head in his hands out of embarrassment. Sam and Kamala would probably be seeing him blush were it not for his full-on mask. “Just because you got to find out my identity first doesn’t mean you-“

            The rest of what Miles had to say was tuned out in Sam’s head. He couldn’t help but think why Kamala never thought to visit him. Then he thought, _Okay. Maybe it’s cause she doesn’t really know where you live._ He doesn’t remember telling either of them actually. Besides, both Kamala and Miles lived so near each other, being in New York and New Jersey. Sam on the other hand was out in the middle of nowhere that was called Arizona. He started even feeling worse when he realized how much of a good time Kamala and Miles had together all the time.

            The other two kidvengers continued to reminisce and laugh about their own antics. Sam decided to leave and awkwardly walked towards the kitchen, hoping to find Tony. Miles and Kamala were too busy to notice.    

~~~

            “Hey, Spidey?”

            “Hmm?”

            “Do you have any idea where Nova is?”

            Miles paused from sorting through one of the crates. The Avengers were currently moving some storage from Stark Tower to Avengers Headquarters. He gave Kamala a questioning look. “Didn’t Iron Man say he was sick?”

            “Well, yeah,” replied Kamala, “but it’s been two weeks. You’d think  he’d be a whole lot healthier by now. He’s missed a lot of missions.”

            “Mmm, the term is actually healthful, not healthy.” Tony interrupted the two kidvengers before placing a heavy crate down beside them. “Healthy is used only for things, while healthful for food. You guys failing English too?”

            Kamala ignored the attempt of a joke and turned to him. “Mr. Stark, don’t you think Sam’s been taking way too long on his break?”

            Tony looked at the both of them before answering. “Well, we should give the kid a little break.” He breathed a sigh. “His virus must be pretty bad. I don’t think we should stress him with anything right now.”

            Kamala and Miles exchanged a look. Miles gave her the usual confused shrug which in return received an _are you kidding me_ face. Kamala turned back to Tony to ask him again. “But-“

            “Look kids,” Tony interrupted, “if you guys think Sam’s been taking his vacation time for granted then go ask him yourself.” He paused before speaking again. “Wait, I didn’t mean to come off as rude. What I REALLY mean is you guys should go to his house right now and have a talk with him.”

            “Wait, what? Right now?” asked Miles.

            “Yes, now. Let’s go kids, chop chop. Some of us have to clean up around here.”

~~~

            Kamala and Miles were currently dangling from each of Iron Man’s hands as he flew them across the other side of the country. He volunteered to bring them to Carefree City, Arizona because he believed it was the fastest way there _without_ having to use the Quinjet. Thor believed otherwise of course but Tony put on his suit and hurriedly dragged the kidvengers out of there.

            Once the three caught sight of the huge “Welcome to Arizona” sign, Tony started to lower them down to the ground. Since they were still in their superhero costumes he decided to fly them behind a nearby cafe. A small town like Arizona probably shouldn’t hold so much commotion the three avengers would make. Kamala and Miles let go of him and hopped towards the cement.

            “You kids have fun.” Tony said. He hoped that the two didn’t catch the way he practically stumbled with his words and gave off an uncomfortable tone. He started to fly off before he paused again. He turned back to them and gave a reassuring smile. “Just be gentle with him, okay?”

            Kamala and Miles looked to each other again. Tony was already half way into turning into a speck of dust till the two remembered to wave him good-bye.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Kamala asked, still looking towards the sky.

            “That Iron Man totally sounded like he was keeping something from us? Did you catch that bit where he said ‘have a talk with him’?”

            “Ex-act-ly. And he asked us to “be gentle with him.””

            The two paused. The both of them _were_ thinking the same thing, and the both of them knew they didn’t want to. They stood silently behind the cafe for a few minutes till they remembered they had to change to their civilian clothes. After changing behind separate trash bins, Kamala and Miles looked back at each other.

            “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

            “No!” replied Miles. “No, I’m sure Sam’s fine. Maybe his virus still hasn’t improved and its highly contagious! Yeah, that’s probably what Iron Man meant.” he added. It was a tough attempt at an excuse, especially because they both knew it was a total lie. Something must have been wrong with Sam, and being sick probably wasn’t it.

            Tired of thinking of excuses, Kamala straightened her jacket. “Okay, let’s go.”

~~~

            Surprisingly, the cafe was nearby a local skate park. Miles remembered Sam mentioning skating as one of his hobbies. The two decided to try it out before having to roam house after house for the Alexander residence.

            Luckily enough they heard a familiar cry of excitement. They caught a glimpse of Sam’s jet black hair, riding the rail up and down on his skateboard. Kamala and Miles stood behind the caged park, waiting for Sam to finish his ride. They couldn’t help but notice how swift and agile he was, nothing at all what a boy would be doing if he were sick. As soon as Sam came to a halt and was back on top of the rail, Miles hollered for him.

            “Hey! Sam!”

            Sam paused from his conversation with another friend. He looked around, confused, before his eyes settled to a pair of teenagers on the other side of the fence. Miles and Kamala waved at him and gave him huge, cheeky grins. His cool and excited expression turned into surprise. He muttered to his friend to excuse him for a moment before heading down the rail. Miles and Kamala walked around to the entrance of the fence to meet up with him.

            “O-oh. Uh.” Sam fumbled when he stood face to face with them. “W-what are you guys doing here?”

            “We wanted to check up on you!” said Kamala.

            “It’s been two weeks, dude. Where have you been?” added Miles.

            Sam’s brain started to think about a bunch of excuses he could say to them. Kamala noticed his hesitation. She crossed her arms and frowned at him. “Mr. Stark said you were sick.”

            Sam beamed at her. “Uh, yeah. Yeah! I was.” He replied, giving a reassuring smile. “I’m better now and I decided to just hang with my friends afterwards. No big deal.”

            “Well, okay. We just wanted to make sure.” said Miles.

            “So seeing as I’m perfectly _fine_ ,” said Sam, almost stumbling. It was the opposite of what he was really feeling at the moment but he didn’t want them to know that. He wanted to go back to his friends back in the skating park. “you can go back now. Bye!” he finished before turning back to skate rinks.

            “Hey, wait.” said Kamala, reaching out to grab his arm before he could leave. Sam paused at her touch but eventually stepped back to look at the both of them. Even though he tried his best not to, he could tell his face was showing how just how anxious he was. Noticing this, Kamala hesitated. She tried to find the right words to say. “We just.....we just....”

            “If there’s anything you want to tell us,” added Miles. “you can tell us. We’re your friends dude.”

            Miles said this in hopes of reassuring Sam. He didn’t expect to receive the cold scowl Sam’s expression suddenly changed into. “If you really were my friends then maybe you should start acting like it.” He jerked his arm away from Kamala’s grasp, causing her to step back in surprise. “Go home guys.”

            “Sam, why are you acting like this?” Kamala asked.

            “Me? Why are you guys acting like, like _this?_ ” he replied as he gestured his hands to them. When Sam was met with confused faces and a silent response, he continued. “Like you’re suddenly worried about me. You’re just here because Tony told you to, didn’t he?”

            “That’s not true.........Almost.” answered Miles. Sam raised an eyebrow at him. “You weren’t coming back to the Avengers headquarters or attending missions anymore. We didn’t know what to do.”

            “I don’t get why you’re so mad at us.” added Kamala. “We were only concerned! You’re almost never absent. I mean look at you, you’re clearly not even sick!”

            Sam clenched his fists and looked at her dead in the eyes. “Maybe I wouldn’t have gone absent if you guys were just there for me. You two are always off with yourselves, leaving me out of things. I’m sick and tired of feeling alone. Like I’m never enough.” Sam threw his helmet to the ground. For a moment he forgot that they were still in the skate park, and his other friends were still behind him. He didn’t care anymore. “I’m sick of being an avenger.” he whispered.

            The three of them stood there in silence. Sam staring at the ground, Kamala and Miles staring at him. He felt like punching himself in the face right now for snapping like that. All that pent up anger and emotion, released just like that. Were they going to pity him? Fight him? Walk away and go back to the tri-state area? _He_  wanted to walk away, but the both of them had to fly here and check on him.  _God, why can't I just be?_

            “That’s not fair.” Kamala finally blurted, after a moment. Expecting to see harsh, scolding eyes, Sam looked up instead to comfort and sympathy. “We ask you about your dad all the time. We  _do_ care, okay?"

            Miles stepped towards him. He slowly placed his hand on Sam’s shoulder. Sam turned to his other friend in surprise. The way the three of them were huddled around each other, around _him_ , it felt so new, so odd, and yet so comforting. “I'll admit Kamala and I tend to leave you out a lot. And pick you for your jokes and snark. It's so easy for us to hang and get along when we're both city people and you're....here." Miles gulped. "We’re sorry we made you feel that way. We didn’t mean to.”

            “But you’re still one of us, Sam. You’re still our friend. We can help you with this.” said Kamala. “And I don’t mean to put you on blame here but....If you were going through something then you should have told us. We could have tried to be better friends.”

 

He blinked at the both of them. Waves of emotions and tears were fighting to release from Sam. All those months holding back his feelings and he was ready to just start  _living_. But even he wanted to, now was not the time. Maybe not just yet. Sam chuckled and shyly looked up at the sky. “Gee guys, how am I supposed to leave the Avengers now? I told Mr. Stark not to tell anybody and anything!”

The other two kidvengers laughed with him, Miles punching his arm lightly. Lightly was always relative when it came to Spider-people. Sam mockingly cried out in pain, causing the three friends to laugh even harder. Their roars were loud enough to be heard all the way in the other side of the skating rink. But they didn't care. Sam placed his arms around both of their shoulders and brought them closer. The three kidvengers were so overfilled with joy their laughter didn't stop for even a second. 

“But, you’re right guys." interrupted Sam, still laughing. "I’m sorry.”

“No.” Miles said. “ _We’re_ sorry.”

            Maybe Sam wasn't ready to tell his friends just everything yet. He didn’t care that there were a bunch of his friends from school watching from behind. He grabbed both of them by their shoulders and crushed them in his embrace. Miles and Kamala were surprised by the sudden movement but they quickly adjusted and wrapped their arms around each other.

            The three of them don’t remember how long they stood like that. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that they had each other’s backs right then, and right now.

           

           

**Author's Note:**

> The ending's kinda rushed but I've had this idea for MONTHS and I just want my kids happy yay. Hope you all like this fic! 
> 
> PS this was edited again on 8/11


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